GenkiGirl Comicshttp://www.genkigirl.com/comics
Romance comics for women.Thu, 10 Apr 2014 01:52:23 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0Tekko 2014 – My Experiencehttp://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=591
http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=591#commentsThu, 10 Apr 2014 01:52:23 +0000http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=591↓ Read the rest of this entry...]]>As most of you know, I had a table in the artist alley this year at Tekko (Tekkoshocon) in Pittsburgh. This was actually my first time tabling at a convention, and I’m sure I annoyed my friends by asking them tons of questions while I researched and planned to try to make this con a success for me. I went in actually with very low expectations. In my mind I would be pleased if I could just hand out my business card to as many people as possible and get them to start reading my comics. In the end the con wound up being a roaring success in comparison to my expectations! XD

So here’s what my booth looked like, photo courtesy of my cousin Michael who has a photography page on facebook here. Apparently I was saying something sassy that made my cousin laugh at the time, lol. Also I look very nerd, please ignore me. XD Anyway onto serious matters. I learned during this con that I will need two boxes of the crate system so I can build higher. Everyone elses displays kind of dwarfed mine for the most part, also I think I want to tinker with the formation of the crates a bit next time. Overall though I don’t think it was too bad for my first set-up.

So Tekko’s AA is in this large hall with the Dealer’s Room. The AA was set-up in ring formations with a lot of empty space inside the ring of tables which you can see on the left of the photo. The dealer’s section is on the right. It looks like Tekko has room to expand here, and hopefully they will continue to grow in the future. Being in the dealers room I believe led to more foot traffic through the AA. Actually attendees had to walk through the AA in order to get to the dealer’s section which I believe helped the AA here. My table was in a very good spot as well, just off the main walkway, so when it was busy there were a lot of people walking through and browsing. The room we were all in was nice too, it had windows that let the light in on days is wasn’t raining (which sadly were few). The only problem was that the convention center was pumping the AC all weekend and it was easy to get cold. I wore a hoodie most of the time.

There were lots of cutie-patootie cosplays every day, and I should also mention that Pittsburgh hosts a very large furry convention during the year and I feel that you saw shades of that at Tekko, as I saw a fair number of full fursuits and tons of eared, tailed and pawed patrons. With that said, I think there is a potential audience for furry art here.

Speaking of the audience and sales, this convention is definitely a fanart con, as I didn’t sell a single piece of original artwork aside from my comics. The booths with fanart of the most popular series at the time were of course the most popular. If I am able to get a booth next year I plan to bring mostly fanart and forget trying to do a 50/50 split between original and fanart.

Since most of the booths were selling fanart there, I think I was probably the only person selling comic books and one of the few people who had an original webcomic. In a way this was a bit sad, as I always love to see more original art, especially comics. That being said though, I did sell a fair number of books and where the attendees lacked interest in original prints, they were definitely interested in my original comics.

In the end I did turn a profit at this convention, which was partly due to the fact that I stayed with my relatives so I didn’t have to pay for a hotel room. This is a smaller con though and I worked for all of my sales. I feel that you have to be willing to say hello to people and engage them so they stop and take time at your booth. If you are going to hide all day sketching behind your booth it will be difficult for you to make a profit unless your artwork is tops baloobie and you are selling half naked prints of the characters from the show Free. Actually this brings me to one of my final observations, and that is, there is a large female presence at this con which helped me out since my art is geared towards them and looks josei.

So, in closing I would definitely do this con again! I really enjoyed this con and was able to even connect with a few of the artists around me while I was working my booth. The fact that I passed out over half of my business cards pleased me and as I said before, I was able to make a profit, of which the proceeds will be going to buying a button machine. >:D

This is another WIP of some art that is going to be used for my next webcomic after Aura finishes. I finally finished the inks and layed down a test color palette. I’m ready to start the final color I think.

So let me say first of all that this review will be from an artist’s viewpoint, and specifically geared towards artists who are planning to display their work in a convention’s artist alley or similar venue.

I ordered a 6ft vinyl banner through Office Depot a little over a week ago and it just arrived today. This is the first time I’ve had my artwork printed so large so forgive me if I gush a little bit because I am pleased to say that I am very satisfied with this product at first blush. A 6ft vinyl banner with grommets runs around $64, but if you are a smart shopper you can get this banner for under $60 by clipping coupons. The total price of my banner with tax included was roughly $58 give or take some cents. This puts them on par with many vinyl banner printing services in terms of price. It is possible to find lower priced banners, but do keep in mind that normally the lower priced banners use thinner material and do not come with metal grommets and etc… So basically just be a smart shopper and do your research!

Overall I feel the price is very good for the quality of banner I received. It seems very durable, the colors are beautiful and rich and my artwork looks great. If I were to nitpick I would say that when you inspect the banner closely there is some pixellation, particularly where there is faint bitmap linework, but for the most part it is very crisp. Also most people won’t be getting down on eye level with your banner and viewing it from 12 inches or less away, haha.

I have yet to use this banner at convention, but I should have more info on how it weathers it’s first con next month. I will also post a better picture of the banner in action on the front of my table. When I have more info to share on my saga with this banner I will edit this posting. Until then though, I will have to say that I recommend Office Depot for printing vinyl banners for convention. It’s a good value for the quality of product you receive.

I finished the inks on this WIP and I just layed down a rough color test. I think I have everything about how I want it, though the sunset probably needs to pop more. Overall though I think I’m on my way. I might have a little break though before continuing the final color since I think I need a break from the computer screen.

I thought I’d share a little WIP I’ve been puttering around with for the past couple days since I like where it’s headed. It’s intended use is for a site banner, aaaaannnnnnd, it IS artwork for my next comic story. I’m still deciding on a title for my next comic, but that’s kinda small business compared to all the rest of the work I’ve done on it already. I still don’t know when the comic will start or anything like that, but it probably won’t be until Aura ends, and probably after Tekkoshocon.

]]>http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?feed=rss2&p=5430Vinyl Banner Designhttp://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=539
http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=539#commentsSat, 22 Feb 2014 21:51:32 +0000http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=539↓ Read the rest of this entry...]]>Because my cousin was super kind and sent me a couple gift cards for Office Depot, I decided I might like to get a 6ft vinyl banner made to put on the front of my table instead of me sewing one with a logo on it. Anyway here is the first mock-up of my design. I chose the image because it is also on my business cards and it is probably one of the pieces of original art the prints the most impressively color wise. Anyway click on the pic to see a larger version.

So, any thoughts or impressions on this? I’m still unsure actually if I can print this because Office Depot has a max image width of 10,000px, and this is double that because hello, it’s a long banner. Anyway I plan to take the file into the actual store instead of doing it online so hopefully something can be worked out. In the meantime let me know what you think!!

]]>http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?feed=rss2&p=5390Finished a Beach House in Sketchup!http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=534
http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=534#commentsSat, 22 Feb 2014 03:55:34 +0000http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=534↓ Read the rest of this entry...]]>I am pretty excited because I finally finished this simple little beach house today in Sketchup. It’s going to eventually be used for backgrounds in a future comic. Anyway I thought I’d share it…

The outside of the house. This is the part of the house that faces the water.

This is a shot of the main interior living space that will see a lot of action in the comic. Out the sliding doors will be dune grass and the ocean.

And here’s the zoomed out view that shows a copy of the house with it’s roof removed. I always like to have a “junk copy” to play around with because the roof and sometimes the walls can get in the way of a shot I need, so it’s good to have something I can break apart to get the right shot.

Well that’s all for now!

]]>http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?feed=rss2&p=5340Gathering input for my next comic project.http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=531
http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=531#commentsFri, 21 Feb 2014 23:58:20 +0000http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=531↓ Read the rest of this entry...]]>Aura is slowly starting to come to a close and I’ve been puttering around with a couple different ideas as my potential next project. One of said ideas is a story that at it’s core is about the heroine trying to overcome her depression. Lots of stuff happen in this story, because even though a person may be depressed, life does go on and things do happen, it’s just that the depressed person has to carry a big boulder on their back while trying to continue their daily lives.

Anyhow so we come to my question, which I will put in easy poll form below for those that like to poll n’ run. So the question is, would you read a comic where the main character is trying to overcome depression? If your answer involves a long winded response, please to feel free to blow that wind at me, haha.

Which bookmark design do you guys like better? Keep in mind the aqua lines are the trim lines and everything outside of them will be cut. Also, obviously the gray is my working space and not part of the design. If you don’t think either of these are good and want to recommend a different crop for the bookmark, then have at it, lol.

Oh, and my logo/web addy is on the back of the bookmark. I was keeping the front pure art unless it’s a bad idea? haha.

]]>http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?feed=rss2&p=5212Working on Business Cardshttp://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=512
http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=512#commentsSun, 20 Oct 2013 01:25:32 +0000http://www.genkigirl.com/comics/?p=512↓ Read the rest of this entry...]]>Since I’ve gotten ahead of myself in the work department I thought I’d take this opportunity to do a few tasks I had been putting off, one of which is designing a business card. I’d like this business card to do double duty, as in I can have them at cons and I can also use them professionally. Here are the front and back of my first design attempt.

I chose this particular illustration because I feel the colors are most striking and also I feel it is one of my stronger pieces. So does anyone have any thoughts or opinions on this design before I commit to printing? One thing to keep in mind, these are full bleed so the trim will bring in the edges a bit. I’m also considering paying a little more to make this have rounded edges, but we’ll see…I can’t go crazy since I think maybe I’d like to make some bookmarks too.